This blog features observations from Randy Turner, a former teacher, newspaper reporter and editor. Send news items or comments to rturner229@hotmail.com

Sunday, September 16, 2012

Teachers do not have to be political eunuchs

(The following is my latest Huffington Post blog and Newton County News column.)

During my first year of teaching eighth grade writing, I
took a gamble on a lesson plan that seemed destined to end badly- I showed an
early debate between the Republican candidates for president.

As you might expect, the students grumbled, wondered why we
had to do something so boring and made their case for another video (As far as
I know, this Nemo still hasn’t been found.)

They finally settled down and began watching the video, and
though I was anxious about whether it would happen, they quickly became
absorbed as the candidates spouted their talking points.

After the video, we discussed the debate and took a vote.

If my eighth graders had their way Ambassador Alan Keyes
would have become the Republican candidate for president, with Utah Sen. Orrin
Hatch finishing second and John McCain third. Coming in dead last was the man
who eventually became president, George W. Bush.

Keyes, of course, was a glib and entertaining speaker, while
the surprising show of support for Hatch came from one of my students who had
lived in Utah and made the case quite eloquently for the only candidate she had
heard of before.

During my second year as a teacher, I had the good fortune
of being able to teach about the presidential election that never ended, and
while some people thought the 2000 election was a nightmare, I found it to be a
wonderful time to be teaching, with students who came into class every day
wanting to talk about the latest developments in the ongoing battle between
whether George W. Bush or Al Gore would take the oath of office.

I have never shied away from bringing politics into the
classroom and over the years I have been criticized for bringing issues into
the classroom, not by students, parents, or administrators, but by those who
read my blog posts and disagree with my views, and automatically assume I am
imposing them on my students.

I am not; that is not my job.

Last week, in a Huffington Post blog, Larry Strauss, a high
school English teacher and coach, expressed his pride that students could not
tell his political leanings and, in fact, thought of him as a Republican though
he had never voted for a Republican in his life.

Strauss quite rightly emphasized having the students
research the candidates and their stances on the issues:

And so, for example, the students in my class
will analyze the stump speeches of both major candidates along with those of
some lesser known candidates and when we evaluate the claims and support and
utilize factcheck.org to study the art of political deception, we will do so
for everyone. We will pick apart the rhetorical strategies of every candidate,
use criticalvoter.com to reveal the linguistic tricks of their trade and
understand how words can change the world -- or be used to maintain the status
quo.

Strauss talks about his colleagues who cannot keep their
political viewpoints out of the classroom and try to bring students around to
their way of thinking. He disapproves of that approach and so do I.

His method is to be a blank slate, and while I am sure that
works for him, he is missing out on a way to connect with students on an even
deeper level and show them that even when we disagree on issues, there is no
reason we can’t discuss those issues amicably.
We have an opportunity to teach a powerful lesson about the way public
discourse should be handled, but so often is not.

Teachers do not have to be political eunuchs to serve their
students well.

My political viewpoints are never front and center in my
classroom. I am more interested in hearing what the students think and
especially, in how well they express those opinions, both verbally and in
writing.

Whether they are Democrats or Republicans, I play devil’s
advocate in discussions and make them back up their points (and sometimes make
them take a closer look about the validity of those points, on both sides).

If students ask me how I feel about an issue, I will quickly
tell them and not make a big deal about it. I always stress that the people who
are elected or who are running for office are not running to destroy everything
that this nation stands for and it is never a battle between good and evil, but
between people with differing viewpoints on how to better serve their country.

Hopefully, when the school year has ended, they will
understand that you do not have to shout down someone to make your point and
that people who disagree you with are not necessarily spawns of Satan.

When they leave my classroom, they won’t be brainwashed into
believing the same way I believe. Their
parents have far more to do with shaping their political beliefs than I, or any
other teacher, and that is the way it should be.

The students who leave my classroom feeling the same way I
do about issues are the ones who came into my classroom with those same
beliefs. As for the ones who disagree with me, every year they leave saddened
that they did not have a few more weeks to convince me of the folly of my ways.

***
From now through Friday, September 21, my novel on education, No Child Left Alive, is available as a free download as part of a promotion by Amazon's Kindle Select. Give it a try and if you like it, spread the word.

1 comment:

If discussing current events in a courteous, even-handed manner to inform students is done as you say, Mr. Turner, then I agree with you: it is not political indoctrination to debate the political issues of the day.

But my experience with teachers and administrators in the Center & Kansas City school district are quite different - and disturbing - than your illustration.

For instance,

1) a mathematics teacher who's an openly avowed socialist (2000) not ashamed to voice her politics in the classroom - along with discouraging words about the 'old white man party' (GOP);

2) a sympathetic administration not inclined to respond to parents' requests to stop this type of 'indoctrination' in her classroom.

About Me

I am a former teacher in the Joplin and Diamond, Missouri, school districts. Before entering the teaching field, I spent 22 years as a reporter and editor for various Southwest Missouri newspapers. I have published three novels, Small Town News, Devil's Messenger, and No Child Left Alive, and seven non-fiction books, The Turner Report, Newspaper Days, Silver Lining in a Funnel Cloud, Greed, Corruption, and the Joplin Tornado, 5:41: Stories from the Joplin Tornado, Spirit of Hope: The Year After the Joplin Tornado, Scars from the Tornado and Let Teachers Teach.

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